Fuel plumbing

Another productive week/weekend, and I still have most of Sunday to do more. The first job done was to get the front wiring completed, so now the front is all wrapped and terminated in a nine pin block. It was a bit of a headache, but thankfully I was able to find a 12 volt power supply and buzz things out as I went. Two of the lights didn't work, the first was a badly fitted bulb which just needed turning round and reseating. The other was a blown bulb. The things weren't even fitted and I have a blown bulb! Anyway, a quick Ebay later and I have a ten pack of Lucas bulbs. I suspect at least one other will have failed so I might as well have spares. 

Moving on to the rear I realised the loom still needs to include the fuel pump supply. And that's not got a permanent home yet. After many hours of head scratching and planning, I figured that bolting it to the fuel tank strap would be very effective;

I did wonder about putting the filter more accessible than the pump, but the pump looks prettier! The aluminium strap didn't fit tightly enough initially;

You can see the middle fixing is bent out of shape and not holding things tight enough. I added another layer of aluminium to all three fixings, and it sits much better. On the tank it looks spot on;

The fuel pipes here are mostly cut. There's a loop between the out of the filter and the in of the pump, then the pump outlet (green cap) should go off to the engine (more on that later). The filter inlet comes from underneath (the lower connector here);

The upper pipe is the return from the engine. The engine connection is made to two hard lines;

That run down the transmission tunnel. This photo shows a couple of issues I need to deal with. First, at the top edge the two pipes are in contact with the edge of the tank, so I need some sort of fixing to stop them from being worn through and also to keep them in place. I'll be 3D printing a bracket that then gets glued on to the tank, which the pipes will clip into. 

The other issue is the fuel and return pipes pointing downwards follow a very similar path, and again they'll wear each other away with constant movement. So again, another bracket is needed to clamp them in place. 

Now that the pump is in place, I can measure the wiring along the car and get it connected. 

However, there is one issue. The outlet of the pump is 12mm, and the whole fuel system is 8mm. No problem, I was able to find a brass reducer to get from 12mm to 8mm. But as I type this, I realised I have no way of connecting the two 12mm ends! Obviously it's got to be proper fuel hose as well. I've got the fuel clamps (once I find them, I've put them 'safe'), but I need maybe four inches of 12mm hose. I'll have a check on Ebay, alternatively the Newark kit car show is next weekend so I can hopefully get some there. 

Finished two jobs

 First a quick one, the dashboard lights;

These look really good, can't wait to get them wired up and lit. I do need to get the facing plastic for all gauges and lights, to protect them. 

Now on to the bigger job, the radiator grille. This is what I'm covering;

This is where I was last weekend;

The next step was to do the two curved sides. A wooden mould was required to get the two arcs converted to a curved section;

Temporarily fixed and put in place shows that it works well;

Then I cut the mesh to suit;

That was evil, getting through stainless steel mesh is probably the worst job I've ever had. I started with a hacksaw, then melted a jigsaw blade, in the end it was angry grinder!

Putting it all together;

And a trial fit;

Some rivets and glue;

And then bolted in place;

I am so happy with the result, it's worked exactly as expected. A quick comparison with what I was aiming for;

And it works for me. Of course, as I was taking pictures I did wonder whether I need to open that bonnet nostril and use more of the grille!! Not yet though, that's just overcomplicating things. And I've never done that before...

So, next job? Fuel plumbing I think, so filter and pump, with wiring and pipes.

Light mounting

 As ever I'm bouncing all over the place, multiple jobs on the go and not really finishing them! Hopefully this one will be a simple one, dashboard lights. I've been looking at these for a while but only very recently got everything together to see what is required. 

First thing, the lights themselves. It'll be a 3D printed housing, with the bulb lights mounted behind them. In front will be transparent printed plastic, with a paper diffuser. As with everything I did a trial first, and came up with this;

The first print was of the colours, that's the top row of coloured bars. This looked 'ok', but not strong enough particularly with the orange. The next two are basically two layers of the same print. With the paper background the colour is strong enough, and then with light shining from behind it should be plenty.

The rows above are test symbols, basically a random set of symbols that I was using as an example. It was mainly to see whether a positive or negative symbol would be better. To be honest I'm not sure, it might come down to aesthetics rather than function! 

The symbols will be 10mm square, which will fit into a 14mm circle. The housing will follow the same design as the gauges, with a 9mm frame round them. This is a 2mm round profile, a 5mm flat and another 2mm round profile. 

In terms of what I need (from left to right);

• Left hand indicator,  a green arrow.
• Brake fluid level warning, a red exclamation in a circle. 
• Main beam, a blue 'light' symbol shining to the left.
• Side lights, a green pair of 'light' symbols.
• Fog light, a yellow 'light' symbol shining to the right.
• Battery charging condition, a red battery.
• Right hand indicator, a green arrow. 

Turns out I don't actually need orange, oh well.

This is the set of images and applicable colours ready to print;

Now I have this I can start 3D designing the housing. 

(Update). I stuck a printout of the lights roughly where they will go;

It's quite apparent that having them spaced out is not going to work, it's just too wide. The bottom row has them all touching, which looks ok but isn't physically possible. The bulb fittings are too big to work like that, and there wouldn't be any separation to stop the lights bleeding from one to the next. What I'll need to do is make it as physically close to each other without blending in. From a 3D print point of view that's around 2mm gap between them. I'm not sure how that translates to the face though, I'll see what Fusion reckons is physically possible. 

Front grille continued

 After a frustrating time with the bonnet locaters, I decided to work on something different just to get some progress. The grille surround was ready to finish cutting and folding, and I'm really happy with the outcome;

It sits well behind the body, it's tight on the edge so it looks like it's meant to be there, and it'll be a great frame for the grille mesh. I've got to do one more fold either side for the mounting tabs, then I can cut and fix the mesh in place. It's plenty sturdy enough with the folds and fixings so it will do well considering the vulnerable position it has at the front of the car.

I then need to think about appropriate curved parts for the side. I can't really visualize it at the moment so it'll be a bit of time with some cardboard to figure it out.

bonnet locators mark 2

 Well, the plan I had to sort the bonnet failed. As soon as the second one went on, the forces involved meant it just snapped on one side and jammed on the other. I think I'd have to do something a bit more substantial to get it to work.

However, that's not the big issue anymore. I'm not convinced two rubber bungs is enough to pull the bonnet into shape. The whole corner curve needs supporting. So rather than try and open up the sides as the bonnet shuts, I'm going to engineer something to give the bonnet more rigidity and line up with the body.

So the first thing was a template... 

Graph paper on the inside edge, and a sharp blade to cut it to the right profile. The same was then done for the outside edge, leaving me with two profiles;

I suspect they'll actually be almost identical, but I thought while I'm here I would get them both. I will now 3D print a profile to match, and see how they fit inside the gap and how much is left. I'll then combine them into one item and print perfectly fitting spacer. Well, the first one will be. The second one will be minus a few millimetres as I'll line it with rubber. 

The plan will then be to glue it to the bonnet, possibly with an additional metal support, that will keep the bonnet shape. I'll probably continue the process all the way down the side, although as that part is straighter I'm hoping I can do it with some aluminium or similar, rather than having to 3D print all the way down. 

And yes, I know this whole process is probably a bit excessive, but one thing I wanted from the start was a tight shut line for the bonnet, and at the moment I don't have that. It sits crooked, it would rub when driving, it's just not what I was after here. 

Bonnet locators and VIN

 A couple of topics for today. The first is the positioning of the bonnet. Up to now, whenever I open or close the bonnet, the edges get caught on the body. It's left a delightful scratch pattern down the side, and it makes one-person opening almost impossible. The plain is to make some deflectors to spread the bonnet sides as they come down on to the body.

This temporary piece of metal showed that the deflection works to push the edge out. There is a follow up problem in that the undercut corner of the bonnet still hooks on but at least this theory works. 

3D printing a duplicate then got me here;

Then all I needed to do was trim the bottom corner of the body. It's not visible when closed, but it just makes opening easier. There will be one deflector attached either side, glue will suffice as they're only in use when the bonnet is opened or closed. This then allows me to mount the adjustable rubber feet that will allow the bonnet to sit square on the body. Fitting them needed repeated opening and closing. That should finish off the bonnet top edge, then I need to just do something to fix the sides in place, some latch or similar. A common option is a triangular spike going into a recess. 

The second topic is the VIN. I have to indelibly mark the VIN on the side of the chassis, either with letter stamps or some other permanent method. I've decided a 'dot matrix' type VIN would work, and I can do that with the dremel. Here is a VIN in the expected font;

I'll size it based on what it looks like on the bar, the minimum size is something like 3mm which would be quite difficult to work with. I think a bit bigger and a bit more visible will be good. I will do it on a separate piece of metal then fully weld in place, I don't really want to do it straight on to the chassis itself. 

Oh, one more subject, leather gluing. I need to glue the leather on to the dashboard surface, so as an experiment I tried using the spray adhesive. Long story short, it failed miserably. It didn't lie flat, the glue didn't actually hold things together, basically it's a no-go. Apparently plain old wood glue is good for gluing leather to wood, so I'm going to try that on the offcut to see if it works better. 

Cambelt and service

 Yet another job that wasn't listed but had to be done, the engine service. The cambelt was questionable at best, I was honestly wondering whether it would just self combust as soon as I started the engine! For the money it just made sense to replace belt, tensioners and water pump.

The only problem was the crankshaft bolt. It needs a combination of being in top gear and a friendly friend stomping down on the brake pedal. That wouldn't work for me because I don't have a connected gearbox, a working brake system, or a friendly friend (or at least a family member that could get into the car!!). So I had to come up with a way of locking the crankshaft;

A quick bit of cutting and welding and I have a way of locking the crankshaft. It still took a mega amount of torque to undo though. After that it was really easy to swap everything over. 

I did see a large amount of rust in the coolant jacket though;

I'm going to have to see what happens over time, but first thing I definitely need to do is get a hose pipe in there and just flush it through, then make sure the new coolant is a good mix. 

After clearing things up, the last thing I did before closing up the engine was pour some fresh oil on to the cams and lobes. When I first opened up the engine I thought it looked really dry in there, a layer of oil wouldn't do any harm so half a cup got poured over. New gasket on the cam cover and new spark plugs and leads, the engine now just needs a regular oil and filter change.

Of course, I had planned on doing the oil change today, but having a tube of RTV sealant that was basically rubber rather than sealant kind of slowed me down a bit! A new tube and a family visit was a nice distraction, then finished the job soon after. 

So yeah, another job done, a quick oil change in the morning then it's ready to run. Back to the radiator for the next job.

Front grille

 This will be done in multiple parts as it's going to take a few days. Before I get started though, a quick update on the injector loom. It went back on well and everything bolted together as expected. The plugs were a much tighter fit on the injectors so I'm happy with that. What I'm not so happy about is the main connector to the loom, it didn't clip back into it's retaining bracket. I think it's because it's so much more rigid now, it just didn't like being bent back on itself. That's good in a 'protection' kind of way, but I'm going to have to figure out how to better mount it. There is a second bracket very near to it that I think will go unused, I could enlarge that hole and fit it there but then it might cause an issue in the next part of the loom. I'm starting to see why builders dread wiring.

Back to the grille. The front mesh arrived;

It looks amazing in the flesh, significant overkill for the job it needs to do but it's going to look great on the car. It's pretty close to this example;

Which is obviously what I was after. The aluminium surround was taken from the template;

Copied on to the aluminium then plenty of masking tape was applied to protect the surface;

This part will show both sides of the aluminium, so while one side is protected by the plastic film (and will be most of the exposed surface), I need to do whatever I can to preserve the other side.

A quick cut to get it to a manageable size;

And the next stage will be trim and fold. Then I'll bolt it in place (rivnuts and screws most likely). Then the mesh can be measured and cut to suit. That bit I'm not looking forward to, the thickness of the wire suggests it's going to need a hacksaw or jigsaw rather than simple wire cutters. I'll replace this paragraph with the actual work once it's done, this is just a placeholder for now. 

After that it's the two sides, I have my cardboard at the ready for those. They will be simple curves fitted to the sides of the centre section above, reusing the same screws to fix them to the chassis and probably rivets to fix them at the front (the back of the rivet will be hidden behind the mesh support either side). 

Finishing a couple of jobs

 One thing I've struggled with throughout this build is finishing tasks. It's quite clear from my to-do list that I have more than a dozen jobs that I've started and not finished. In a way it's a good thing, as I can test out theories and make sure I'm not going to get caught out. I'm working on them early enough that I can make changes if required. However, at some point I need to do jobs that I can finish. So I picked a couple of easy jobs to finish the weekend.

First was drilling the holes for the seats, no pictures as holes aren't exactly exciting! I did need to get them centred, and I am tempted to sleeve them. Not necessarily for strength (the bar they're sitting in already has a welded sleeve in it) but more to centre the bolt. It's another job where I've put things together well enough with the car in bits, but now the inside and the outside of the car are more than an arm width apart I'm starting to regret some of my ideas. At least the holes are drilled and are waiting for the seats. I want to do one more trial fit to make sure the runners move freely, then I can think about getting the seats covered. Oh, this is one case where starting a task early pays off, at least this way I can check the runners are good before I risk getting the leather dirty.

Job two was the injector wiring. I managed to snap a connector very early on, and put it aside for another day. Well, Sunday was 'another day' so sorting that became a job. First mission was getting the loom out, it's basically trapped by the fuel rail. I had to unbolt the fuel rail, but it's never that simple! When I unbolted it, it didn't move at all, the coolant supply for the air intake was blocking it. So that had to come off as well. I finally managed to get the short loom out and on the floor;

I laid the new connectors on top to check for length, and at this point I should have spotted something...

Yep, with the connectors being cheap chinese knockoffs I found that they couldn't even keep the two wires consistent! The top one goes black orange, the bottom is orange black. 

Fortunately I was taking photos as I went, and it was easy to match the colours to the right side. Not that it should matter, fuel injectors aren't polarised as far as I know.

Anyway, after a few fiddly bits and a lot of loom tape, I'm back to this;

Four new connectors and a lot less grease and muck. This can now go back on the car. Oh, one thing I needed to check, the loom will get reasonably warm where it is, not exhaust temps hot but at least engine hot. I needed to check the loom tape heat resistance, thankfully it's ok. But as with a lot of things I'll find out for sure when the engine is started.

Dammit, I've just realised I didn't finish this job either... nup, I won't think like that. The job was to replace the connectors and that's done. Putting it back together is a separate task.

Going back to my to-do list, neither of these jobs were actually on my list! They were on earlier lists but not the latest one. And two more jobs need to be added;

1.  Clean the rocker cover. I noticed it's filled with sawdust, fibreglass offcuts and no doubt plenty of metal filings, none of which should go anywhere near an engine. I need to give it a good scrub and degrease, maybe a lick of paint (probably just black as I'm not overly bothered about getting it shiny).  
2. Service the engine. I've still got a cam belt, water pump and everything else to replace, along with some new oil. It's not a difficult job but it is mucky. 

Actually, there is a third job, inspired in some way by the latest Tools n Track video. I left some of the engine loom connected to the fuse box, mainly the alternator and starter motor wires as well as some of the sensor wiring. But it's a big thick bunch of wires that is a lot shorted in the car than it would have been in the donor. I'm tempted to open it up and see if I can thin it out, as well as shorten the wires to fit better. I know I'm making more work for myself but I think it'll be worth it. 

Saturday progress

 First job, radiator grille. Starting with this;

I put some temporary plates either side of the rad to see what they look like;

And some tape to mark the lines;

And this is where a bit pear shaped. It wasn't the middle bit that was the issue, it's the huge voids either side. I need to move it out a bit. I'm just limited by the grille, because it's a 500mm piece of material. So marking that position make things a bit wider. Mocking up some cardboard shows how it would work;

OK, the voids are still quite large but not as bad as it was. Transferring it to paper and including the bottom edge gives me something to work off;

I just need to cut it out of aluminium, then when the grille arrives I can put it all together. I'll leave the sides for now until I have something rigid to work off. 

Oh, and the design has changed a bit, this will fix to the chassis rather than to the body. It just works out a bit stronger than gluing it to the body.

Next, a bit of bling...

Two roll bar trims and the gearshift surround. I do need to do the same job for an exhaust trim. 

So that ticks off item 7, 11 and half of 13. 

Stitching leather

 Well, the first attempt didn't go too badly;

The first stitch was the join, that worked well and was very straight. The second one was the green, there were a few hiccups but overall it's not too bad.

Then it went wrong. The purple is all over the place. It's because of the holes, they weren't big enough. The pricking iron has a slight angle to it, but I didn't drive it deep enough. Because of that, the thread didn't stay in a consistent position all the way along.

Compare that with the blue (top line). That is spot on, and it's because I drove the iron deep and made it as it should. Then with a consistent tension on the threads I was able to make the line about as perfect as I'll ever get it. I needed to figure out what to use as a backing, wood didn't let it go through and even a welding glove wasn't much. A folded jay cloth worked well. 

I also don't think the soft leather helps, but overall I just need more practice. If I can make a new shift boot that'll be a good start. I'm not convinced seat trimming is on the cards just yet, but it was a fun distraction and a useful extra option.  

Planning ahead (grille and leather)

 I felt quite adventurous yesterday, so I went on a youtube hunt for some videos about sewing leather without a machine. Turns out it's not actually that complex (although on youtube and in reality are often very different!). I've bought a handful of tools for leather stitching, I'm going to give it a go one evening. 

I've finally landed on a design for the grille though. I was 90% there before, with me wanting a centre grille with curved sections on the side. This was the first example I found; 

But this one shows exactly how I can do it;

The centre section is still mesh, and I've got to choose between perforated or woven;

I've seen both in place and they're both similar prices so it'll be a coin flip I think. 

Back to the sides though. I'll use sheet aluminium with a folded edge to do the sides, the grille will then be rivetted to the folded edge. Similarly the same aluminium piece will form the side, here's a close up;

I'm not entirely sure what's going on above the metal, but considering my air filter will be there anyway I think just ending it out of sight will be sufficient. That edge wouldn't be IVA friendly though so I'm going to need to do a bit of work there. The folded aluminium will be though, that has a natural radius. 

I don't have to wait for the grille to do the two sides though, I'll just mark appropriate points on the body and work from there. They have to be clear of the metalwork and radiator, but I'd like them quite tight on the rad so most/all of the view through the grille is just radiator. In fact, I could get it right on to the metalwork and get it to follow the profile. 

As for the strip down the middle, that's just aesthetics. I can't see any functional purpose and many other cars don't have it. The slight curve of the grille will increase it's rigidity, particularly if I go for the perforated rather than woven. 

And an extra bit of planning ahead. I've just found out that the printer I have in the office can print on CD's. Now it did occur to me that if I had a clear CD, I could print out indicator lenses for the oil light, indicator light etc. Back to youtube, and I find a video showing how to peel the foil off a CD! I now have a clear CD to try printing on, to see if I can get suitable images that can then be cut out to use on the dash. If this works, I just need to 3D print some surrounds (similar to the gauge surrounds) then use decently large LED's of the right colour for the lighting. Who knows, maybe if the printing works ok I could use coloured ink to make sure they shine the right colour. 

OK, experiment one failed, there's no adhesion of the ink to the plastic. The colours are blotchy and the black won't stay still. However I did remember I have some clear acetate that is printable, I'll give that a go.